Last Updated on December 12, 2023
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
It was a sweet, nostalgic sound. Just as Discovery Princess pulled away from its moorings in Los Angeles, heading south to Mexico, the ship’s horns blasted the theme from The Love Boat.
The popular 70s and 80s comedy featured the Pacific Princess cruise ship. It gave a huge boost to cruising in general and the Princess brand in particular.
Discovery Princess, launched in 2022, is the fleet’s newest and last of six Royal Class ships. It holds 3660 passengers ranging from kids to older adults but rarely seemed crowded. Its advanced technology and culinary excellence, especially its specialty restaurants, make it stand out among the premium cruise lines.
High Tech on the Discovery Princess
Upon boarding, every Princess guest ireceives a medallion, about the size of a quarter, usually worn on a neck lanyard. It’s unique in the cruise industry and very useful. Without touching anything, it unlocks your stateroom door. It is also instantly recognized in all bars, restaurants, shops, and the casino.
With it and the Princess app, you can order food or drinks or reach another guest anywhere on the ship. The app also includes daily programs, ship deck plans, and account updates. Happily, for many, guests receive a printed program in their staterooms each evening.
The main theatre, holding 1,000 guests, is also state of the art with impressive LED curtain backgrounds, amazing lighting effects, and imaginative sets for the large ensemble of singers, dancers, and musicians. The theatre was ideal for single acts (like a clever magician) or enrichment lectures.
Our accommodation on the Discovery Princess was a standard balcony room. It was well-designed and felt spacious, but the balcony and bathroom were smaller than on many cruise ships. Someone quipped that a person could sit on the toilet, wash his/her hands, and have a foot shower simultaneously. The room had great lighting and temperature control, good Wi-Fi, a giant TV with many channels and movies, and a twice-daily cleanup.
There’s no library aboard, but Princess provides so many activity choices on both port and sea days that we always keep busy.
Three Ports in Mexico
We took advantage of tours in all three ports – Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta – and were impressed by the efficiency of the Discovery Princess staff.
Not so impressive was one hired tour guide in Cabo who barely said a word about the landmarks on our bus tour. In Mazatlan, our bus broke down while driving through the Sierra Madre mountains, but, in this case, the guide was very helpful in keeping us informed and getting a replacement. Despite the challenges, the tours were interesting, particularly a visit to a glass-blowing factory and a brick maker who used a mixture of mud and manure to form brinks in molds. Workers go barefoot to avoid soiling their shoes.
360 Dining Experience
Discovery Princess still has many excellent ‘meals included’ options, like the huge World Fresh Market Buffet and the three main dining rooms – Juneau, Ketchikan, and Skagway. But we wanted to explore a few of the ‘extra cost’ specialty restaurants unique to Princess.
The most stunning example that combines high technology with high-end cuisine is the 360 Dining Experience ($149). Truly a unique adventure, 360 is an interactive, immersive, and multi-sensory geography and culinary masterpiece.
Twenty guests sit in a circle surrounded by LED walls and animated projections on tables and plates. The 90-minute celebration of the senses takes visitors to Greece, Italy, Spain, and France by sight, sound, and smell. The host, three chefs, and ten servers offer a seven-course gourmet meal of regional dishes from each Mediterranean country.
At the same time, Brooke Shields narrates a video story about real farmers and fishers. Excellent wines are poured, including a Spanish grenache with bottles aged for an additional six months underwater. The 360 Dining Experience is so popular that Princess now offers it twice each evening.
Discovery Princess’s Elegant Cuisine
Not as tech savvy but in some ways serving even more elegant cuisine are two other small dining venues that showcase the Discovery Princess’s culinary commitment. The Chef’s Table Lumiere ($95) includes a private tour of the stainless-steel galley, and a grand, six-course feast presided over by the Executive Chef.
Twelve lucky guests will enjoy salmon gravlax, foie gras, seafood bisque with brandy cream, a choice of salmon fillet or vegetable Oscar, and lemon mousse for dessert. The Executive Chef describes each course and helps pour Veuve Clicquot Champagne into Lemon Sorbet as a mid-meal palate cleanser.
More exclusive still is the Caymus Winemaker’s Dinner ($140), another muti-course extravaganza using fine wines from California’s renowned Caymus Vineyards. In a private room, just ten guests enjoy outstanding Napa Valley vintages. They pair perfectly with Beef Carpaccio, Marinated Oyster Mushrooms, Black Truffle Risotto, a choice of Prime Beef Tenderloin or King Salmon with Giant Prawns, and Chocolate Raspberry Cream Mousse.
Just six of us were able to savor this treat because, we were told, the four other guests who had booked the meal had overindulged on tequila during our Mexican stop in Mazatlan! Their loss.
Other Specialty Restaurants
Three other specialty, extra cost, restaurants we enjoyed were in larger dining rooms and attracted a large following. The Crown Grill ($39), with its open kitchen, is rated as one of the best steakhouses at sea. Sabatini’s ($35) is a Princess favorite on many of its ships and offers excellent Italian dishes like Lobster Tortellini, Ossobuco Milanese, and Veal Tenderloin in Marsala Wine.
On our final night aboard the Discovery Princess , we booked a meal at the French restaurant, Bistro Sur La Mer ($39) on Deck 7. With a menu planned by a three-star Michelin chef, it offered Escargot, Braised Veal Shanks, and Seared Duck Breast. Quenelles – egg-shaped dumplings made from red snapper and scallops in a lobster sauce – were probably the best main dish on the cruise.
Unfortunately, Bistro Sur La Mer is being replaced by The Catch by Rudi, Chef Rudi Sodamin’s seafood restaurant. With his reputation as a Master Chef, Rudi’s fresh, healthy, and sustainable seafood should be a huge hit. However, its placement on Deck 7 just above the atrium could be a deterrent. It was quite noisy at Bistro Sur La Mer, with music and loud talking coming from the two lower decks.
Guests on Discovery Princess will be well served and fed if they stick with the complimentary restaurants. But the quality and variety of the extra-cost specialty restaurants make a splurge worthwhile.
Early in 2024, the Sun Princess launches in Italy. It will be more extensive, with even more restaurant choices to enhance Princess’s reputation for innovative, high-quality cuisine.
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